Synopsis

By the advent of the 21st century, much of humanity was dead, having been trampled over by a new master, Godzilla. A select few among mankind took to the stars in a spacefaring vessel called the Aratrum in search of "the promised land," the planet Tau-e that could sustain human life. But the migration plan fails, and the remnants of the human race decide to return to Earth. But the distortions in space-time and the distance traveled means that mankind is returning to a completely changed Earth some 20,000 years later. The returnees, led by hero Haruo, prepare to take the fight to Godzilla based on a strategy that has been 20 years in the making. Carried out with the help of two alien species, the Exif and the Bilusaludo, the humans succeed in defeating Godzilla in a costly battle to the death.

But the victory is short-lived. Rising from the depths of the planet is a new breed of monster, dubbed "Godzilla Earth." Evolving for 20,000 years, the creature stands 300 meters high, weighs over 100,000 tons and wields such overwhelmingly destructive power that Haruo and company have no choice but to run for their lives.

Coming to Haruo's rescue, however, is Miana, a member of an aboriginal tribe called the Houtua. They are the first humanoid people the returnees have encountered. Could they descend from humans? "Our tribal god was destroyed by Godzilla. All that we have left are these eggs. Anyone who has tried to fight or resist him has been drowned in fire," the tribespeople say to Haruo, who responds with: "This is our last hope of recovering our home."

Meanwhile, Bilusaludo commander, Galu-gu is elated to discover that the Houtua tribe's arrowheads are made of a nanometal or a self-sustaining metal. It had been developed in the 21st century as an "anti-Godzilla" killer weapon deployed at their decisive battle fought at the foot of Mt. Fuji, but had been destroyed before it could be activated in the form of a "Mecha-Godzilla." The nanometal was its base substance, and proof that the manufacturing plant can still be used.

In Japan, radiation creates monsters (Godzilla). In America, radiation creates superheroes. It's almost like Japan and America have very different narratives surrounding nuclear fallout. If we think really really hard, we might know why this is.

Anyway, this animated Gojira 2nd movie is better than Marvel's Avengers and you should feel bad for not being weeb enough to realize its superiority. We have better written story, superior storytelling, way less CGI, characters who serve other purposes beyond being marketing baits, and most importantly, we are not watching pg13 rated shonen movie which Marvel Cinematic Universe represents with its content. Ask yourself the question "Why would
I choose superhero over super awesome?"

If the first movie didn't impress you with its best scenes such as the one where man saw a flower and burst into tears because mother nature has not abandon humanity, or the scene where dude said "keikaku doori" (all according to the plan) followed by everything falling apart 2 minutes later, or the rampage of flying mini-godzillas -- worry not! This time the man himself is here and he is not just your normal Godzilla. No! He is Mecha Godzilla (pronounced megagodzilla)! This is seriously the funniest thing I have seen since the laser-sharks scene from The Lego Movie (2014).

Not only that, we have biblical references, tanned tattoo waifus (p l u r a l), gun mags that always have one more shot left, Lara Croft's bow-wielding abo cousin, dudes who accept their destiny in 3 seconds like waddup I was born in the tunnels bby, person named Belu-Be, tentacles, nanometals (the worst of all metals!), epic time skips and nice technologies (EMP harpoons, meta missiles and whatnot), electro panic (that song at 42 minute mark), very own me2 campaign, and dialog about Godzilla's effect on ecosystem followed by more tentacles. Seriously, that timing, bro. This is the type of greatness that keeps on giving and rewarding those who pay attention. Hanazawa Kana is also there because most people wouldn't even consider this anime otherwise.

The art and animation follow the same idea as the last one. Meaning this is Netflix's own idea of nu-anime, spiced with some Berserk 2017 art design. I would complain, but since the creatures are monsters, I have had a blast calling Godzilla a CGI-Monster instead. The sound directing is from the Hollywood. Meaning keeping your bass at anime settings is not the best idea. I wasn't prepared, left a class of water on the table and the Jurassic Park effect hit it pretty hard. If you're into that sorta things, then this is a treat for you. It's almost like our CGI-Monster is walking at your very yard.

When it comes to the characters, we have a squad nearly as colorful as in Mars of Destruction. After 2 movies, I am still quite unsure which one of them is the real main character, but that's hardly the point of this movie. Basically this movie is Japan's animated take on the chaos movie boom which was started by Sharknado in 2013. As a person who has seen all 5 Sharknado movies (yes there are 5 already, 6th coming this year) I have to recommend this Godzilla movie series to each and every anime viewer who have been blessed with the ability of enjoying purposely done bad more than things which tried to be good but weren't.

This was a major improvement from the first film. As an avid fan of kaiju films, this was an exciting movie! The story was so well done and intriguing, I was hooked for the entire hour and 40-minute ride!

The whole story about the Hotua and their obvious connection to Mothra was insane! (The "dust"/"scale" on their skin, and what they used to heal the humans, probably scales from the dead body of Mothra herself!) It will be interesting to see if her egg(s) hatch and larva come out to either combat Godzilla or Ghidorah (What a welcome surprise, but it wasn't unexpected too much!). This
has to be one of the best takes on the Mothra twins/Shobijin in her film history, and Mothra's mythology in general.

As for "MechaGodzilla"... While the design was wicked for the robot himself, we get nothing but a glimpse of him before it evolves into something much greater. The concept of having the nanometals evolve to specifically combat Godzilla over thousands of years was incredible and a welcome change. The Vultures they build to fight Godzilla from above were very Gundam-esque and cool looking. Seeing MechaGodzilla City construct and arm itself was very visually pleasing (As well as that title card!) While this is an incredibly ballsy and different take on MechaGodzilla's concept, it is something fresh and new while paying homage to the originals.

As for Godzilla himself? A job well is done. This film didn't have a ton of Godzilla, but man when he is on screen he is stunning. There is no doubt in my mind that "Godzilla Earth" is truly the King of Kings. The story was so interesting and investive that I didn't find myself "needing" Godzilla to show up like I did in the first film. We get a single tease of him early on, and then when he comes on screen he doesn't leave. The end turns mankind's greatest threat into the universe's.

I was taken by surprise when the Bilusaludo turned out to be the enemy aliens and not the Exif. I thought for certain the Exif would be summoning Ghidorah based on the first film's ending, but it turns out they merely suffered from the deity's mighty wrath.

They are doing a great job setting up this huge dogfight between Godzilla and King Ghidorah. It seems that this time around, Godzilla won't be needing external aid to defeat him (as Godzilla has never defeated Ghidorah without help). This film has me just as excited for Ghidorah's return to the big screen as I am for his first appearance in the American MonsterVerse.

Overall, this film was many times better than I expected. It saves all the action for the last minute while delivering a great naratve. The bland characters from the first film were expanded upon and I actually some-what cared for how they fared. Cheers to this film's major improvement and the final film in this series!

We all know Netflix has an abundance of money, allowing them to undercut the cinema industry and cable television with their bombardment of original content. With over 700 original movies/TV shows being released this year, Netflix has decided that 30 of those will be anime-related. Capturing a significant/growing portion of the population who is dedicated to this Japanese genre of entertainment. That being said, however, the sudden influx of new anime content doesn’t necessarily mean we, as the public, will be receiving a quality product, as it seems that the Americanization of anime has — unfortunately — become a trend.

If this were
a 2005 PS2 game, I’m sure it would be an exhilarating experience with plenty of action filled fun; but as a movie, it just feels like a bungling stew of machismo, and misplaced human rage. Rather than formulating unique battle plans to defeat the “unstoppable” Godzilla, they have the aid of dues ex Machina (i.e. the nano-metal) to solve all of their problems. Combine this with full-tilt, reckless action sequences, and you’re on your way toward imitating a Michael Bay film. Because thinking of a way to stop Godzilla’s reign of terror with human technology is too burdensome, even though Hideaki Anno (director of Shin Godzilla) did so a mere two years prior. In addition, while the crew acknowledges the events that lead to Godzilla’s conception — that being, human pollution and the detonation of nuclear bombs — they seem to lack contrition for their role in his eventual birth. In their ignorance, they label him as an “evil” creature that must be annihilated, rather than evaluating their own mistakes as a species, and determining how they must remedy the “evil” within themselves. This harkens to a person who pops pimples on their face, without acknowledging the actions that led to those unsightly clogged pores from manifesting in the first place (i.e. bad diet, stress, over-washing your face).

The animation is, in a word: Fremdschämen. A German term which roughly translates into, “being ashamed for somebody else who is behaving in an embarrassing way.” I cannot think of a better word to describe my feelings when watching the animation for this movie. There were moments in which characters appeared to be moving in mechanical ways, resembling the gestures of a stiff action figure. Godzilla, whiling looking like a roided-out super athlete, also had the appearance of a wrinkly, geriatric dinosaur (similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is “German-ish”). GEMBA/Millepensee animation (the studios behind Berserk 2016) are probably releasing a collective sigh of relief, saying: “at least there’s another animation studio as bad as ours.”

It was evident from the outset that the animation studio wanted to produce a high paced action movie, but why wait until the final 30 minutes for Godzilla to randomly show up to do so. We already established that this film has very little to say from a narrative level, so why pretend otherwise? If the end goal is to neglect characterization and an engaging story, then just follow in the steps of Gurren Lagann and embrace full-throttled mayhem. At least, in that sense, it would have been a semi-entertaining movie. Instead, we receive a mentally constipated crew of soldiers who muddle around in anger until the MC (Godzilla) makes his appearance.

While the first film was fairly dull this sequel was actually enjoyable. This film goes into their second attempt to kill Godzilla. Their first was before they where chased off earth. After watching this I am excited for the third and final film in the series. This film is some of the best Science Fiction anime I have ever seen. Anyone who has Netflix should definitely check this out and if you enjoyed the first film you should definitely watch this. This is another solid production from Polygon Studio who has also created Ajin, Knights of Sidonia, and Blame! which are all Netflix exclusives. I
look forward to more partnership between Polygon Studio and Netflix.